


cherry

by limehoneytea



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cherry Salisbury-Pitch, Future Fic, M/M, POV First Person, POV Simon Snow, Pining Simon Snow, Profanity, Simon-centric, Time Skips, graphic descriptions of Baz's face, he spends whole paragraphs like 'hgh baz pretty', if you put canon in a blender with my hopes and dreams and magic beans you get this fic, kind of, simon says shit like twice every three paragraphs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 15:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20968655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limehoneytea/pseuds/limehoneytea
Summary: Destruction is not your destiny, Simon Snow. It never has been.(Simon Snow eats a magic bean and realizes he has a say in his future too.)





	cherry

**Author's Note:**

> I read Wayward Son and then I wrote this to make myself feel better. I don't own a copy of Carry On so some of this might be very inaccurate but I hope it's as fun to read as it was to write!

Simon

“There is no such thing as destiny, Chosen One,” the dryad had said sagely. “The future is never set in stone.”

I blinked up at her and wiped my tears with the back of my hand. I never went a night without nightmares, I knew that much about myself, but my occasional weekend mid-day nap had never ended like thisー with glimpses of me setting the world and everyone I’ve ever known on fire. Them screaming and crying and yelling at me to stop. Waking up in a cold sweat and coming down to scream my problems to the trees.

I wished I could say something as wise as her but all that came out of my mouth was a confused “huh?”

She smiled softly. “Between you and your future lies a series of choices. Every choice you make or don’t make leads to a different future. The differences, of course, may be miniscule or they may lead to a life you had never imagined.”

“But what about the prophecy?” I mumbled because that was what had been shoved onto me since the day I discovered my magick.

“The prophecy only foretold your capacity, your ability to be able to do what has been asked of you. Nothing more, nothing less. Destruction is not your destiny, Simon Snow. It never has been.”

“But-”

She smiled kindly and cut me off. “If you really are worried,” she said, unclasping her fist and producing a milky white seed, “eat this.”

“What?” I asked because as much as Penny and Baz scorned (and mocked, in Baz’s case) me for my split-second decision making, I wasn’t a _ complete _ idiot.

“This will show you a possible future of one of the people on your mind. I can’t tell who the vision will be of, but I can guarantee that they won’t be in pain.”

“And,” I tried, because I really, really wanted to accept her offer, even though I knew it was a stupid idea, “they could reach this _ future _,” my voice tinged with slight sarcasm at the word, “from the point they are at life right now?”

She smiled, seeming surprised for a bit. I could tell she wasn’t expecting that question from me. I had gotten really good at figuring out when people thought I was stupid. “Yes,” she said simply, leaning casually against a nearby tree. “It’s your choice, Simon Snow.”

I looked to her face and then at the white seed sitting on the palm of her hand. _ It’s your choice, Simon Snow _ rang in my ears as I plucked the seed from her hand, popped it into my mouth, and closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, I was in a rustic-looking office. All of the walls were covered in bookshelves and a fancy carved wooden desk sat in the middle of the room. Sitting at the desk was a tall man (fiddling with his laptop), with familiar slender arms, long legs, and slightly wavy black hair. Baz. _ Fuck _. Of all the people the stupid seed could have chosen, it had to be Baz.

His jawline flexed as he tensed and I had the sudden urge to run my fingers along it. He paused for a second to breathe, glancing up for a moment before returning to his keyboard and starting to type at three times the speed he was going at before. His eyebrows were drawn tight, just like they always were when he was concentrated. The yellow light from the lamp nearby shone on his features and he looked like a, honest of Merlin, model. He’d be fucking perfect if he wasn’t a vampire.

I followed his momentary gaze from earlier and just then noticed someone I stupidly hadn’t noticed before. Sitting _ on _ the desk was another figure, though far smaller, a baby (maybe a year old, maybe a bit more) girl (I’m assuming because of the red tutu pooled around her legs) who was tangling up a colorful beaded necklace like it was her only purpose in life.

“Dada!” she called, banging the necklace on the table, almost as if on cue. 

Baz looked up and met her eyes, some of the tension leaving his body and his eyes visibly softening as they landed on his daughter. I never would have thought of the word “soft” when describing Baz but he was. Soft, I mean. Whenever I pictured our futures, I never imagined Baz with a child he actually cared about. As mean as it seems, maybe I just didn’t think he was capable of love.

I took in the girl’s appearance, her tan skin and the loose waves that framed her face. She didn't look much like Baz, their similarities ended at the hair, and I had to question if the baby was biologically his. Maybe she was adopted. Could vampires even have children?

I felt a pang of relief as I realized that while the baby didn’t look much like Baz, she didn’t look much like Agatha either. I smiled. So there _ was _ a universe out there where Baz didn’t steal my girlfriend. 

“Yes, darling?” Baz asked lightly, looking over his computer screen. His voice sounded deeper than it was now. Less posh too. If I was drawing metaphors, I would say that his voice was like honey, thick but flowing smoothly out of his lips.

His daughter’s smile widened and she banged her necklace against the table again. “Dada!” she cheered, flicking her hands towards him.

What remained of the tension seeped out of Baz’s shoulder and he smiled at his daughter, moving his face to be nose to nose with hers. She giggled and Baz’s smile widened as he cheered “Cherry!” and made her giggles pick up again.

_ Fuck _ . They were adorable. I really, _ really _ wanted to hate them. Baz would probably teach her his evil plots when she got older and she’d probably come after me with them to finish what her father started. Probably. But for now, they were so fucking adorable I wanted to squish both of their cheeks.

I wondered how Baz was like as a father. He was so gentle with her from the bits I was seeing. I wondered if he sang her to sleep or told her stories about dragons and knights. I never had parents, so I wouldn’t know much, but I think Baz would make a good father. I wondered what it would be like to be married to him and to raise a child with someone like Baz and I found myself wanting it instead of being utterly disgusted by it.

Cherry used her tiny baby fingers and pulled lightly on a strand of Baz’s hair. “Dada!” she said again, tapping her other hand to his cheek. 

Baz smiled and pulled his face away, only to bring his hand forward and tapping her nose. “Cheryl.” Tap. “Natasha.” Tap. “Salisbury.” Tap. “Pitch.” Tap.

Cherry burst into giggles again and wrapped her hands around his, tugging it towards her. 

Salisbury._ Salisbury _ . Did I know a Salisbury? I don’t think there was one at Watford. Did Baz marry a Normal? Or maybe a Magician from another country? My heartbeat was unusually fast and I felt something like jealousy at the pit of my stomach. Why was I jealous? Was I jealous of Baz and his happiness? The whole point of this magic bean was to show me a happy ending, so why the _ fuck _ was I jealous?

“What do you want me to do, darling?” he asked softly as Cherry’s giggles became more subdued. 

An alarming image involving Baz and those words popped into my head and I dismissed them as soon as possible, trying to steamroll over the picture by aggressively thinking about scones and roast beef (it didn’t help as much as I would’ve liked).

Merlin and Morgana, I was _sick_. He was talking to his daughter, his _ daughter _. I needed to throw my whole brain away. The entire thing. Maybe Baz would do me the favor of throwing it to the merwolves. 

Cherry tugged her father’s arm before wiggling her fingers and rocking forward towards him so that her chest collided with his outstretched arm. A smile overtook his face. “You’re tired.”

Cherry rocked forward again and crashed into his arm, an adorable pout sitting on her face. She wiggled her fingers again and this time Baz did what she wanted him to do. He hooked his slender hands around her shoulders and lifted her with more ease than I could have ever mustered (vampire strength probably). He placed her on his lap and she burrowed in, bringing her arms to her chest and digging her head into his torso. 

My vision blurred and faded to black before fading back in again, still slightly blurry. Baz looked past me (or the angle I was watching them from) and smile brightly. “Evenin’, love,” said a voice. A _ male _ voice. Shit, _ shit _, more images.

The mystery man’s accent was similar to mine, maybe a bit more posh, but it was way deeper than mine was.

My vision blurred again and it faded to black before fading back for a split second, just it time for me to see the back of mystery man leaning in and kissing Baz.

My vision faded to black again and this time there was no fading in. I tentatively opened my eyes. 

The dryad’s face was much closer to mine than it was before. “Did it work?” she asked.

My eyes were still wide and I got up to my feet. “Y-yeah. Yeah it worked,” I said, placing my palm on a tree trunk for support as I breathed heavily. I turned to the dryad and took a few steps back. “Listen,” I said slowly, “I gotta go okay?”

She smiled. “Good luck, Simon Snow,” she said, just as I broke into a sprint.

I ran and ran and ran. I ran all the way to the school and ran up the stairs to my room in the Mummer’s House. I only stopped when I collided with my bed and fell face first into my pillows.

Holy shit. _Holy shit_. I was in love with Baz Pitch. Baz Pitch as in my enemy. Baz Pitch as in the vampire. 

The door opened and Baz slipped into the room, probably coming back from football practice. I angled my head to watch him as he abandoned his jumper on his chair and slipped into the bathroom.

Baz Pitch as in my roommate. Baz Pitch as in the most handsome boy I had probably ever seen. 

I was _ fucked _. 

* * *

Baz Pitch was driving me _fucking_ _crazy._

I now know how he felt in fifth year when I wouldn’t leave him alone long enough to breathe properly. He kept looking at me with his perfect eyes and raising his perfect eyebrows every time he saw me blush bright red. I wanted to cave his skull in. And also kiss him. I think I wanted to kiss him more. 

Okay, I wanted to kiss him a lot more. I wanted to kiss him every time I saw him. I wanted to kiss him in class when he traced the corner of his bottom lip with his pen, I wanted to kiss him when he piled a million blankets on top of the bed and sank into it with a small sleepy pout (almost exactly like Cherry’s, apparently babies like to imitate), and I definitely wanted to kiss him when he slipped into our room looking like a greek god, all glistening sweat and mussed hair, just after football practice.

I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. If it would be like it usually is with us, a fight, all nails and teeth and pulling. Or if it would be soft and gentle, like how he looks in his sleep, if he would gently place his hands on my cheeks and press his lips softly to mine.

Baz liked to say that I was impulsive and that I had no self-control every time I had inevitably gotten in trouble at the end of each year, but now I wished I had _ less _ self-control. I wished I could just scream my feelings at Baz, let him punch me for embarrassing him and then forget it ever happened. 

But I couldn’t. I wanted to. Merlin, I wanted to. I wanted to tell him how much I wanted to kiss him and how I wanted to run my fingers through his hair and fall asleep with him in my arms. I needed to say it, I needed to get it out there so I wouldn’t do something as stupid as _ tell _ him. 

“I’m in love with Baz,” I told Penny as soon as she lowered herself into the seat across from me in the dining hall the next day. She looked up at me wide-eyed and her eyes searched my face frantically. I could tell she was trying to figure out if I was joking and if I was going to scream “April Fools!!” even though it was nowhere close to April. I sighed and leaned forward, abandoning the scone I was buttering (so Penny knew this was serious business) and resting my face on my palm. “Pen, I’m in love with Baz.”

She blinked and then blinked again after a beat, before her eyes darted to Baz and his minions (that’s what he liked to call his friends. I used to find it obnoxious but now it just sounds adorable). She thought they had spelled me or fed me a love potion or something similar. She looked towards me warily and blinked a couple more times. Then, she hesitantly opened her mouth to speak. “What brought this on?”

She still thought they had done something to me and I could see her mentally going through a list of everything that could make me fall in love with my enemy. So, I told her. I told her about the vision and about Cherry and about the mystery Salisbury that had kissed him. I told her about my feelings and about how I tried to stifle them for three days and panicked over them for five, and I watched her cross ‘love potion’ off her list (love potions don’t last longer than a day unless repeated doses were given and repeated doses of love potions had physical effects).

“Simon,” she said slowly after I had finished, searching for something to tell me. I wanted Penny’s guidance, she was one of the smartest people I knew and I trusted her to know what’s best for me. I would follow whatever advice she gave me, no questions asked. 

“Just tell him.”

No. No no no no no. I couldn’t. I _ wouldn’t _. 

“Simon, what’s the worst that could happen?”

I banged my head against the table and sighed. “Penny, don’t you get it? Best case scenario, he feels the same, and then I’m _ robbing _ this Salisbury bloke of his life. Worst case scenario? He punches me in the face or kills me and dumps me into the moat for the merwolves to chew on.”

“Simon一”

“No, Penny,” I said, my magic prickling. She seemed to notice it too, along with everyone else in the hall, including Baz. I felt 50 pairs of eyes on me before I even looked up. I breathed in and out, and then in and out again until conversation around the hall had started up again and my magic didn't feel like it was trying to burst out of body anymore. My eyes met Penny’s and I held her gaze for a bit. “No,” I said, climbing out of my seat and grabbing a scone. I tried to smile at her but my lips only twitched up on one side. 

I turned towards the door, stuffed the scone in my mouth and started walking, not looking at anyone or anything until I was back in the safe confines of my room. 

* * *

Kissing Baz was nothing like it was in my fantasies. His hands were set gently atop my hip bones and his forehead was brushing so gently against mine, I could barely feel it. But his lips told a different story. He kissed me like I was his salvation, like kissing me would solve all of the problems of the world. He kissed me carefully, like he was trying to diffuse a bomb and messing up would cause me to explode but he also kissed me like he played his violin, like he knew all there was to know about my lips and that messing up was close to impossible.

We were laying on the floor in his room, his childhood room, and he was absentmindedly playing with my fingers. “Snow?” he asked gently. I didn’t respond, because I was a little shit and because he should know better, and let a faux angry huff pass through my nose. I felt him smile into my shoulder and I almost melted at how adorable it was. “Simon?” he tried again and moved his head to get a better look at me.

“Hmm?” I hummed, raising our interconnected hands and placing them under my chin. 

He smiled again. When he spoke, his voice was softer that I had ever thought possible. “Why did you kiss me? I know it wasn’t because of the fire, you could have stopped me some other way.”

I frowned. “I kissed you because I wanted to,” I said. I leaned forward and kissed him softly, just because I could. “I’ve wanted to for a long time.”

He frowned and tilted his head to the side with a small pout. He looked like a confused puppy and I wanted to kiss his pout off his face. I leaned forward to kiss him again and he smiled against my lips. “Since when?” he asked.

_ Shit. _ I was too lost in Baz to remember Cherry and _ Salisbury _. “Shit,” I swore and shot up, dragging Baz with me through our interconnected hands. I yanked my hand free with much more force than I needed and I watched Baz look at me like I’d just slapped him.

Shit.

His beautiful soft smile was replaced with a sneer I knew all too well and he moved his hand away when I tried to take it again. “The regret’s settling in, isn’t it?” he asked bitterly. “By all means, Snow, don’t let me keep you here when you clearly can’t stand the sight of me.”

I realized, just then, that I hadn’t met his eyes. I stayed silent for a second, trying to figure out what to say, when Baz got up to his feet. He was putting his defenses up again and he was piling them up as high as they would go. If I didn’t say something, I would never get to see that smile again.

“No, Baz,” I said, wrapping my fingers around his wrist. 

He stopped in his steps and took a few deep breaths. He turned his head towards me and gave me another sneer. “I’ll let Daphne know you won’t be staying for dinner.”

Shit. _Shit_. Tears already streaked his cheeks. He was crying. He was crying because of me. “Baz, let me explain.”

He went to pull away but I had already started rambling. I rambled and rambled about Cherry and her beaded necklace and about the future I had seen for him. I told him about how much I wanted to kiss him and why I didn’t think I could. Then, I asked him if I could kiss him again.

Baz looked like he wanted to believe me but was having trouble following through. He nodded yes to my question anyway and I moved forward, not to kiss his mouth, but to kiss his cheeks. I kissed him 5 times, twice on each cheek and once on the mouth just because I couldn’t stop myself. “I’m sorry,” I said finally, before lightly kissing his temple.

Baz had melted completely by the time I was done and he cupped my face with his shaking hands. “I don’t want anyone else,” he said softly, running his fingers along my jaw.

“But you looked so happy一”

“一 I am happy!” he leaned in to kiss me but stopped just before his lips met mine. “I’m happy right here.” He ran a finger along my temple so I met his eyes and then smiled. “With you.”

I inched forward and smashed our lips together and Baz grinned.

* * *

Months later, when the home of the former Mage was searched for evidence of his crimes, the diary of one Lucy Salisbury was found in a safe within the premises. After the Coven had combed through it and gathered everything they needed to convict the late Magician of his crimes, they gave the diary to a figure revealed to be next of kin of both Lucy Salisbury and the former Mage. They handed the diary to Simon Snow, to me, and wished me luck in reconnecting with my family. 

The first thing I did when I found out was kiss Baz, and then kiss him some more as he laughed quietly against my lips. The second thing I did was tell Penny, who threw a book at me and yelled at me for being an idiot.

The third thing I did was try to find Ruth Salisbury, who was my my grandmother, apparently, and drop my phone when she found me first. Lady Salisbury and her son, Oliver, were all too happy to find a connection to their beloved Lucy and I spent the next few months meeting family members, learning secrets and becoming a proper Salisbury, just like my mum was. 

They had started calling me ‘Simon Salisbury’ long before I had even mentioned a name change but when I did, all involved parties were happier than I could’ve imagined. I liked it, changing my name. Simon Snow was a product of war, an aftereffect of a madman’s schemes. Simon Salisbury cracked jokes with his grandmother, got dramatic over popcorn with his boyfriend and wrinkled his nose at his best friend’s shenanigans.

When, a few years later, an estranged Magician lost her life but not the baby in her stomach, and Simon Salisbury and Basilton Pitch immediately volunteered to take the baby in, no one was surprised. They only muttered about how “it was about time” and smiled when they called the baby girl something as ridiculous as _ Cherry _.

Cheryl Natasha Salisbury-Pitch grew up happy and loved. 

I remember when the dryad had said “_ destruction is not your destiny _” and I remember how I hadn’t quite believed her. I smile as 16-year-old Cherry crashes dramatically on the sofa and complains about how packing for Watford is the worst part of going to school. I watch Baz patting her knee and promising to mail over anything she needed while she was there and calling her a drama queen. I watch Cherry scoff and throw a pillow at her father and I hear her mumble “you’re one to talk, Dad,” and bury her face in the arm of the sofa again. 

“_ Between you and your future lies a series of choices, _” she had said. 

  
I watch the people I love most in the world loving and living and just simply _ being _, and I smile. I ended up making the right choices after all.

**Author's Note:**

> the highlight of my outline for this was: "and penny's like ????? and simon's all 'anyway im in love with him but some guy with my hair and moles went up and kissed him at the end of the vision so I have to pine and wallow in self pity for the rest of my life now'"
> 
> This is my first fic for this fandom so let me know what you think!


End file.
